Just weeks after it raised its P2P transfer limits, US-facing online poker outfit Americas Cardroom has lowered its rake. High-stakes tables ($20/40 or over) will see the pot-grab reduced from 5% to 1%, while at the other end of the scale, the rake on $0.02/0.04 games will now be capped at a single penny. The rake reduction brings the Winning Poker Network site into line with the regime offered by the similarly US-facing Merge Gaming Network, which lowered its rake last month to match that of the formerly US-facing PokerStars.

Speaking of PokerStars, the poker players formerly known as Red Pros on Full Tilt Poker are the latest to learn their previous arrangements with FTP’s former brain trust mean bupkis to FTP’s new management. The Red Pros received an email this week from new Team Pro manager Dustin Iannotti, who informed them that the only obligations PokerStars’ parent outfit The Rational Group assumed when it acquired FTP was the payment of non-US player balances, so welcome to Dumpsville (population: you). Going forward, FTP is entirely focused on its new The Professionals crew of Tom Dwan, Viktor Blom and Gus Hansen. You hear that, Howard Lederer? Your Red Pro check-cashing days are over! OVER!

French rapper/poker player Bruno ‘Kool Shen’ Lopes, last seen hoisting the World Poker Tour National Series Cannes title this summer, has signed on to represent Team Winamax, joining players like Gaëlle Baumann, Patrick Bruel and Ludovic Lacay. Winamax, which hoisted the eGR Continental Operator of the Year award on Monday, called their new homie “an eternal icon of French rap,” which we’ll take their word on, rather than actually subjecting ourselves to listening to someone attempt to use a Romance language to sound badass. Then again, Winamax did manage to get themselves blacklisted in Belgium, a badge of honor we don’t think Chuck ‘Fear of a Blacklist Planet’ D ever managed to attain, so…

Finally, anyone who thought the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) had used the hubbub surrounding FTP’s return and the WSOP final table to sneak out the back door, think again. The ISPT recently announced a partnership with poker staking company MyPokerSquad to help put the necessary 30k, er, 15k bums in the seats of London’s Wembley Stadium for the ISPT’s inaugural event, which may or may not take place starting May 31 and may or may not come with financial guarantees. MyPokerSquad is preparing to expand operations beyond Belgium and France into Germany and the UK, so the partnership should be a symbiotic one, assuming the ISPT actually happens.

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The Ayre Media Group is based in Antigua in the West Indies with teams in London, Manila and Vancouver covering the global gambling industry.Along with ensuring fair coverage of the gambling industry we highlight the great work of the Calvin Ayre Foundation.